21/02/2021, Sunday
Spring is here. What a lovely surprise to find an iris popping up in the middle of the garden. New crocuses starting to come out too. I think I also planted hyacinths, tulips and bluebells. My memory is failing me scarily.
The Loopy Whisk is another blog where her recipes are pretty reproducible in my hands. Many of her recipes are gluten free. If not, substituting gluten free flour for regular flour usually works well here. This is my first Eggless Brownies. I was highly doubtful during the baking stage as it seemed permanently under baked. But it's supposed to be. You want to see some half-baked batter on the inserted toothpick but with some crumbs. The brownie will be overbaked if you only see the crumbs. As long as you follow the instructions, you will be pleased with the result.
Gluten Free Brownies (Eggless), adapted from The Loopy Whisk
200 g chopped dark chocolate, 60 – 70% cocoa solidsAdjust the oven rack to the middle position, pre-heat the oven to 160 ºC and line a 20x20 cm square baking pan with greaseproof/baking paper.
In a heat-proof bowl above a pot of simmering water (or in the microwave), melt together the dark chocolate and sunflower oil. Set aside to cool until warm.
In a separate heat-proof bowl, combine sugar and coffee. Pour freshly boiled water into the bowl. Stir until the sugar is fully dissolved. This may take a few minutes if you use demerara sugar. Let the coffee sugar syrup cool to at least body temperature before the next step.
Pour the coffee sugar syrup and vanilla into the melted chocolate and whisk well until combined.
Add in the flour, xanthan gum, cocoa powder and salt. Whisk well until you get a smooth, fairly thick brownie batter.
Pour the batter into the lined baking tin and smooth out the top. Scatter the pecan pieces and a few pinches of sea salt flakes.
Bake in the pre-heated oven at 320 ºF (160 ºC) for about 30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out with some half-baked batter and many moist crumbs attached.
Let the brownie cool completely at room temperature before slicing and serving. If you could bear the wait, the day after baking is when the brownie shines for me. It's fudgy, chewy, wonderfully chocolaty and dangerously moreish at the same time. Unlike most other brownie recipes I've tried, it's not toothachingly sweet. It's just perfect, possibly my favorite brownie.
*I used melted butter spread. Using vegetable oil would veganize the brownie.
**My blend is: 25% Buckwheat + 25% White Rice + 25% Oats + 20% Tapioca + 5% Sweet Rice
14/02/2021, Sunday
Valentine's day dinner
Another quick bread. Although I have made quick bread several times, it's always a mix of flour and oats. This time, it's only oats. And it seems to be the recipe behind the tradition Irish Porridge Loaf. Because the main ingredient is oats, you can smell its distinctive sweetness coming out while and after baking. I like it very much.
There are several version floating on the internet but the idea is to use twice as much oats as yogurt (by volume). The actual weight of oats varies from one recipe to another. But this recipe is quite lenient. Just adjust the thickness of the batter with extra liquid. You can't go wrong.
Gluten-Free Oat Bread
320 g gluten-free porridge oats (roughly 4 cups), roughly ground*Preheat the oven at 180C. Grease and line a 2-lb loaf tin.
Combine roughly ground oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar and chia seeds if using. Mix well. Stir in plain yogurt and egg. Stir to create a well-mixed dough. The dough will be thick but make sure to mix in all dry ingredients. If the batter is too thick, add one tablespoon of milk in at a time until there are no dry crumbs left at the bottom of the bowl.
Pour the batter into the lined loaf tin. Smooth the top and cut a line in the middle. Bake at 180C for 45-50 minutes. Turn the tin 180 degrees half way in. You may wish to cover the top with tin foil if it darkens too quickly. When the bread is baked, an inserted toothpick will come out clean.
Remove the bread from the oven and cool completely before slicing.
*It's my personal preference to grind the oats scruffily. If you prefer more chunky texture, leave this step out.
Make sure you use nonstick parchment paper or grease the tin (or tinfoil) really well to remove the baked rice cake easily. I am showing you the base recipe below which is easily adapted for other flavors such as chocolate, coconut, green tea, sesame or aduki beans.
Today is the last day of the Year of Rat. Happy Year of Ox!
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| Baked Chinese Rice Cake and Cheese Crackers |
Baked Chinese Rice Cake (for Chinese New Year)
185 g glutinous rice flourPreheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 15-18cm round cake tin with nonstick parchment paper or well greased tinfoil. If you only have 20cm tin (square or round), you may want to double the amount of the batter.
Combine rice flour and baking powder in a bowl.
In another bowl, beat milk, egg, butter, sugar and vanilla together. Sift in the flour mixture. Mix until well combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin. If you like coconut, scatter some desiccated coconut on top. In the picture above, I also added some sweet bean paste. Bake at 180C for 20-25 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test.
This is a raspberry version of My Favorite Cheesecake recipe. Can you see how creamy and unctuous this is? This recipe has converted a non-cheesecake eater to a willing one. To let you on a secret, light cream cheese works just as well as full fat version, if that makes you feel better. This is my first cheesecake this year. You will see it often here.
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| Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake |
First, make the raspberry coulis by heating raspberries, sugar and lemon juice in a milk pan (small pot). Simmer until raspberries become soft and easily squashed by a rubber spatula and the mixture starts to thicken. Mash the raspberries with a fork or rubber spatula. Drizzle in cornstarch slack and bring the pot back to boil. Simmer until the consistency is like thick honey. Heat off and pass the raspberry mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds. Use a spoon to press the puree through the sift and scrape the seedless coulis off to a bowl. You need to be patient with this as it can take 10 minutes to extract all coulis without any seeds. Cool the coulis while you prepare the cheesecake.
Start with the biscuit base by lining a baking tin (24.5 x 17 x 4.5 cm or 9½" x 6½" x 2") with greaseproof paper and crushing the digestives to fine crumbs. 160 g for a thin base and 200 g for a thicker one. Drizzle in just enough melted butter to look like a wet sand. 30 g is enough for me when using 160 g of biscuits. You may need more butter if using 200 g of biscuits. Put the biscuit butter crumbs in the pan and press tightly use a back of a spoon. Chill the base while you prepare the filling.
Preheat the oven at 140ºC.
To make the filling, beat cream cheese in a bowl with a hand held mixer until creamy (just a few seconds, no need to overbeat). Now add in sugar, vanilla and orange extracts, cornstarch and lemon juice and mix for 30 seconds. Fold in beaten eggs with a rubber spatula with minimum strokes possible. The goal is not to incorporate excess air which cracks the cooked cheesecake. Finally fold in cream/yogurt mixture. Pour all cream cheese mixture onto the biscuit base pan and smooth the top.
Now drop the raspberry coulis by spoonfuls over the top. Make swirls with a tip of a knife or a spoon and then gently shake the pan to even out the top surface.
Bake in a preheated oven (no fan) at 130ºC for 50-55 minutes until the edges have set but the center lightly jiggles when shaking. Turn the oven off and keep the oven door ajar to cool the cheesecake for 2 hours (you can wedge a towel or an oven mitten at the door). Remove from the oven and cool completely. Then chill in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight.
